Designing for a Better World

Recently, the Danish government’s biennial design competition, INDEX: Award 2009, celebrated examples of design to improve life. The award accepts nominations internationally, and ultimately 6 winners are selected to represent 5 award categories – Body, Home, Work, Play and Community.  The winners are awarded 500,000 Euros each.

The five winning designs were:

Micro-lending website kiva.org.

The Freeplay Fetal Heart Rate Monitor, a hand-cranked monitor, which can be used during childbirth in remote areas without access to electricity.

The INDEX site explains:

The Freeplay Fetal Heart Rate Monitor works off-grid, where there’s no electricity to support a delivery. The Washington Post reports that some 500,000 women die annually in childbirth, often from causes that could be prevented with basic care. Getting an aid like this into the hands of midwives in the developing world can mean the difference in life and death, both for mothers and infants.

Street Swags, a bed and sleeping bag designed to provide more comfort, warmth and protection from weather for people living on the street.

The INDEX site explains:

A bed and bag with room for belongings, Street Swags are made of lightweight, waterproofed canvas with a high-density foam mattress. It offers its users a degree of comfort, warmth, and protection from the weather. Designed for those living on the streets, its discreet appearance offers some safety for those who need to be ‘invisible.’ The simplicity of the design enables low-skilled workers to manufacture the swags efficiently while minimizing waste of raw materials.

Philips Design’s Chulha Stove , a safe cooking device for people in developing countries that makes cooking easier, and reduces air pollution.

The INDEX site explains:

It traps smoke and heat inside a locally cast housing in such a way as to heat two pot-holes with a high rate of efficiency to require less fuel; It then directs the smoke through a chimney chamber that includes a stack of slotted clay tablets – they capture particulates as the smoke moves through, cleaning the exhaust before it ever leaves the assembly; and The Chulha’s chimney then includes an indoor access for cleaning, eliminating the need seen in previous devices for a family member,  usually the mother, to climb on the roof and attempt cleaning. This has been blamed for many accidents, along with the toxicity of the smoke.

Better Place: a design for a massive electric vehicle infra-structure that makes electric transport convenient and affordable.

PIG 05049: a project to help people understand how things are made and where they come from so that the resources can be properly cared for. PIG 05049 tracked all the products made from a single pig.

[via The New York Times]